St. Paul the Simple

Facts

Paul spent his first sixty years in the world, employed as a laborer. He then suffered the ordeal of discovering that his wife had committed adultery. Thereafter, Paul withdrew into the Egyptian desert in the hope of becoming a hermit under the tutelage of Saint Anthony the Abbot. Upon seeing this aged would-be disciple at his door, Anthony judged him to be ill suited to eremitical life, and refused to receive him. But Paul refused to leave. Anthony thereupon decided to test Paulís virtue by commanding him to carry out a series of difficult tasks, including a very prolonged regimen of continuous prayer, the sewing of mats that he was then instructed to take apart and sew all over again, and very strict fasting. Paul proved himself to be unwavering in obedience and perseverance, winning Anthonyís confidence and admiration. Anthony was later to say of Paul, ďHow this monk puts us all to shame! He immediately obeys manís simplest order, while we often fail to listen to the word which comes to us from heaven.Ē Paul lived his remaining years in great humility and childlike simplicity.

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90.

From the time he was eight to the day he died, John followed every impulse of his heart. The challenge for him was to rush to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit gave him, not his own ... continue reading

91.

- "excerpts taken from Victories of the Martyrs," by St. Alphonsus de Liguori Taken from the Acts of St. Anastasia, who is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass, and commemorated by the ... continue reading

92.

Charles was the son of Count Gilbert Borromeo and Margaret Medici, sister of Pope Pius IV. He was born at the family castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, Italy on October 2. He received the ... continue reading

Saint Katharine Drexel, Religious (Feast Day-March 3) Born in 1858, into a prominent Philadelphia family, Katharine became imbued with love for God and neighbor. She took an avid interest in the ... continue reading

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Clare was a beautiful Italian noblewoman who became the Foundress of an order of nuns now called "Poor Clares." When she heard St. Francis of Assisi preach, her heart burned with a great desire to imitate Francis and to live a poor humble life for Jesus. So ... continue reading

St. Michael the Archangel - Feast day - September 29th The name Michael signifies "Who is like to God?" and was the warcry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against satan and his followers. Holy Scripture describes St. Michael as "one of the chief ... continue reading

The name Gabriel means "man of God," or "God has shown himself mighty." It appears first in the prophesies of Daniel in the Old Testament. The angel announced to Daniel the prophecy of the seventy weeks. His name also occurs in the apocryphal book of Henoch. He was the ... continue reading

When St. Mamertinus was Abbot of the monastery which St. Germanus had founded at Auxerre, there came to him a young man called Marcian (also known as Marian), a fugitive from Bourges then occupied by ... continue reading

St. Lydwine is the patroness of sickness Lydwine of Schiedam was born at Schiedam, Holland, one of nine children of a working man. After an injury in her youth, she became bedridden and suffered the ... continue reading

This great defender of the faith insisted on the central claim of
Christianity: God can be known and loved-indeed, that is why He came
into our midst in the person of His Son; so that through a
relationship with Jesus Christ, man could participate in the ... continue reading